Let’s protect rule of law! HCLU-action against the modification of the Constitution
The Constitutional Court stroke down the law on 98% extra tax in its resolution of October 26. The body declared the law unconstitutional on its face, among other reasons, due to the violation of the prohibition of ex post facto legislation.
János Lázár, the leader of the governing party’s fraction, as a reaction in a couple of hours after the Court decision, presented motions as MP to the parliament, which on one hand would revoke the competency of the Constitutional Court in the above issue, on the other hand would guarantee that the constitutional objection would be resolved and the law on 98% extra tax could pass.
The HCLU considers this case unprecedented in the 21-year history of the Hungarian democracy. Decreasing the competency of the Constitutional Court can not be justified. A basic constitutional principle, namely that the violation of the prohibition of ex post facto legislation will never be in line with the notion of rule of law, even after shorting out the Constitutional Court.
„It is unprecedented cynicism how the government justifies the attack against the institutions of the constitutional state: saying that the constitutional state has already been consolidated. It is as if you missed a goal in a match, and then pleading fair play would stretch the goal post, and furthermore take away the referee’s whistle“– commented the bill, Balázs Dénes, the Executive Director of HCLU.
In the opinion of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union the bills presented severely offend the principles of constitutional state. This cannot be justified by the large majority in the parliament, thus the organization is asking the sponsor of the motion to withdraw it immediately, and call the citizens to join their campaign aiming the withdrawal of the bill.
